The Equalizer – Review

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

For anyone who is under the impression that making a movie is easy (apart from the expense) I would suggest they check out The Equalizer. This film has everything, the solid foundation from remaking a cult 80’s TV show with a cool title, the re-teaming of director Antoine Fuqua and star Denzel Washington, kick-ass fight scenes, a truly nasty villain, walking away in slow motion as a fireball consumes the world, and at least two funny moments (there may have even been a third), but some how this was not enough to make a good movie.

The film stars Denzel as hardware store employee Robert McCall, a man so mild-mannered Superman would take notes in order to be a better Clark Kent. Rob lives a simple life, he works, he helps his co-workers by motivating them to be all they can be, and then he goes home to clean his house; and then he does it all over again. If you have never seen a thriller before in your life then fair enough but it shouldn’t take what at least felt like 30 minutes to establish that this guy is “an ordinary guy” WE GET IT!!!!

Eventually we get introduced to Chloë Grace Moretz’s down on her luck hooker, Teri, whom Robert befriends at the local diner. Teri ends up hospitalized after a run in with her pimps, and Robert decides something has to be done, fortunately he happens to be a highly trained, but retired, government agent and deals with them in a quick and efficient manner. but as luck would have it, it turns out that these lowlife pimps are major players in the Russian mob and now their boss demands answers, so Robert must be prepared to take them all down. Can you guess what happens next? If you guessed violence, executions, casual torture, and explosions you would be correct.

The only real surprise was when Bill Pullman showed up in a blink and you’ll miss him cameo that serves little purpose other than to remind the movie going public that Bill Pullman still exists.

To be fair I wasn’t expecting much in terms of originality but I had hoped for something a little more entertaining and had the film been half an hour shorter, with a little more pace I would have gotten that. It is a slow movie, to the extent that you are waiting for what is inevitably going to happen to happen and then when it does you have a sense of disappointment as you imagined it better.

I would like to give this 3 out of 5, it has all the hallmarks of a 3 out of 5 film, but I’m going to give it 2 as I expected better.

According to Wikipedia they’ve already greenlit the sequel. Equalizer 2 – More Equal, Could it be better than the first film? Could it be worse?